Betrothed at Birth
by Nobody Knows o-o
Summary: She used to be his confidante, his best friend, and everything in between. Ever since she was five years old and he taught her that skipping out of foster homes was the best thing since sliced bread, the two have been soul mates. Or, at least, that's what the gods think. They've been bound together without love to speak for them, but maybe... just maybe... they can make this work.
1. This Is Me, Take What You Get

_I Don't Want To Die  
…just to breathe in…_

* * *

The one very prominent memory I have of my mother is her holding me to her chest and singing a lullaby while I pretended to be asleep at three years old. I adored her voice back then, loved to hear her loving tones overlap each other and make me drift off into slumber. She had never hesitated in hugging me or giving me all the care and compassion she could muster. I had never felt sorry for myself for not having my dad around, even when she would always talk about him wistfully and give me looks of sorrowful guilt, as if it were _her _fault that he wasn't around.

Just in case you were wondering, it _wasn't _her fault as far as I'm concerned. It was mine.

Ha! You think I'm going to spit out why in the world I think it was my fault? Well, that would ruin the surprise, so no. You'll have to wait, darlings.

My name is Aeron Fenwick and both my mother and I are petite. We have long curly black hair and brown skin, darker-than-our-complexion freckles splattered across our cheeks and noses and huge golden orange eyes that seem to really throw people off every time. Our neighbors used to tell us that, when they looked at us, it was as if they were staring into the middle of the sun. I actually had life pretty good. No one hated me, I didn't have to go to school because I was too young, and I got to hang around with my mom all day while she told me stories and sang and cooked for me.

The only bad thing? My mom was insane. Yeah, I can see what you're thinking. 'Insane? Ha! Yeah right.' No, seriously. She was. I always had to hide from the social workers when they came because they – and I quote – 'wanted to check on my well-being'. It was a bit annoying, to be honest. Besides the fact that I had to squish myself under the sink (my usual hiding place) while she tried to convince them not to send her to the loony bin, I also had to listen to their idiotic reasons to search the house. I always had a bad feeling when these so called 'social workers' would visit. They gave off this weird vibe and a lot of them looked incredibly weird. Once, I saw a girl that only had one eye in the middle of her forehead. Her partner had _three heads. _

Anyway, even if the supposed social workers hadn't been out-of-this-world-freaky, I still would've hated them. Why? My mother was the nicest person on the planet and she didn't deserve to be harassed by people who knew nothing about her.

Did you catch that? I said she _was _the nicest person on the planet.

She's dead.

Yep, that sucks, but it's true. She died – no, wait, let me rephrase that in a way that is _not _politically correct (whatever that means). She was _murdered. _Murdered by monsters, in fact. I'm sure you can guess that that didn't go over well with the police when they came to pick me up when I was five. After carting off my mother's body, they asked me question after question, and I answered them as truthfully as I could. They determined, in the end, that my mother wasn't right in the head and must've just killed herself accidentally or something equally as stupid. My mother wasn't selfish enough to commit suicide and leave me all alone in the world. I _told _them that the person who had killed my mom had had three heads and ugly faces, but they did not, unfortunately, have any intention of believing me. Still, I was only five years old, so I can kind of give them the benefit of the doubt.

Actually, I forgave the police _and _the social workers a long time ago, because they stuck me in a foster home with Leo Valdez. It was by far _the _best six years of my life, living with him. He was funny, exciting, adventurous, and always helped me to look up when I was undoubtedly looking down. Then again, all good things seem to come to an end sooner rather than later in my life. It was only a matter of time before I found out that he was planning on leaving.

It was kind of depressing to walk in on him in the middle of his packing and see him try to come up with an excuse as to why he was about to skip out and not say goodbye to me, his only friend and little-sister-figure.

"_I'm coming with you!" _

I can remember saying those words clearly, even when I was only five years old. He had given me a definite frown and told me that there was no way he was about to let me follow him. I didn't understand at the time that he had only been trying to protect me from living on the streets, a decidedly bad place for a five year old to grow up in. Still, he was only two years older than me, so it wasn't as if he belonged on the streets either.

Finally, I managed to convince him to let me come. He was totally against it, but there really wasn't much he could do. I had some strong lungs and wouldn't hesitate to go tattle if he wouldn't let me accompany him. Leo grabbed my bag and his and hoisted them over one shoulder, while holding my small hand in his free one. We walked straight through the front door in the middle of the night and the police walked us straight back in twenty three minutes later.

We had to move foster homes after that, since the people who took us in were angry that we would even _think _of being 'ungrateful.' That was the start of a very deep friendship. We understood each other. We understood why the other had wanted to leave. From that moment on, we _knew _we had to stay together.

And we succeeded… almost.

* * *

_A/N: Hi everyone! So, here's my latest story on this account. This chapter definitely happened before the Heroes of Olympus series, but the next time she sees Leo, all that stuff is already going to have happened and been done with. I'm just going to say that Jason came and lived at Camp Half Blood with Percy Jackson and Annabeth and Piper and Leo and blah blah blah after they all met up at the Roman Camp and that there was some big battle that went on but won't be discussed much because it isn't the focus of the story. So, there you have it. My explanation. Of course, Aeron won't have been around for any of the events that Leo experienced at Camp Half Blood or Camp Jupiter or anywhere else. He'll be at least eighteen by the time she sees him for real again._

_Oh! If you want to see an image that looks really close to what I envisioned Aeron to look like, just go here: www dot imgur dot /EXwgi_

_The original picture was found on alicexz's deviantart page right here: . www dot deviantart dot com /?qh=§ion=&q=Tiana+#/d39zjsr_

_All I did was make the pic a bit brighter and add freckles to her face. I credit the work to the awesome alicexz!_


	2. The Sticker Incident

Nobody knows the trouble we've seen  
_…and nobody knows the price of this dreaming…_

* * *

I cried when they took him away.

You should remember that, since I _never _cry. I hadn't cried when my mom died, I hadn't cried when they had carted me off to a foster home, and I hadn't cried when Leo and I had gotten into our first quarrel (which we quickly resolved half an hour later since we got bored with being angry at each other). But when our latest foster parents told him that they had no choice but to send him to a special 'reform boarding school' and that I would not be accompanying him, I _cried. _Not just any short spurt of bawling either. I'm talking serious waterworks here. Even though he was thirteen and I was eleven and it was sort of awkward to hug or anything like that, he still wrapped his arms around me to try and make me feel better. He hated to witness my sadness and I knew it hurt him deeply somehow to see me sobbing and wetting the front of his shirt with my tears.

They literally had to pry me off him. I screamed and kicked and totally went berserk when it came time for him to leave and he tried his hardest to make them let him stay, but it was all for naught. The couple was hard as stone against our begging and pleading and they certainly didn't care that it was breaking our hearts in two to leave each other.

Before I could scratch their eyes out for taking him away from me, they had locked me in my room and left me to scream and rage at them through the closed door. At that moment, I wanted to kill them. I wanted to wring their necks and send them to the deepest part of the Underworld. Not that I actually knew about the Underworld at that point in time, but still. It was just how I felt, okay? I was furious. Completely and utterly furious. You can't exactly blame me for hating the idiotic couple who had, according to them, taken us in by the 'goodness of their hearts'.

Goodness of their hearts my ass. There is no way in Hades they were thinking of _that _when they took us in. The government had to be paying them bucket loads to even consider letting us sleep under their roof.

"Let me out!" I screeched over and over again, banging my fists against the door. They obviously didn't listen to me, being the harsh people they were. In fact, they wouldn't let me out for days, telling the school I had been going to that I was sick with the flu. Or maybe it was influenza… it slips my mind at the moment. They had to feed me, but just opened the door for about five seconds to push a plate in and a glass of water. It was really a terrible arrangement. I would've escaped out the window the first day, if it hadn't been for the fact that I was hoping they would let Leo come home sometime. They didn't, of course, but I still wanted so badly for them to that I put off leaving for an entire three weeks. After the first four days, they let me go back to school and even starting thinking I wouldn't run away after the first two weeks. On the seventh day of the third week, however, I was gone. If Leo ever came back, he wasn't going to find me _there._

To my surprise, I didn't get caught for almost a month. I lived in alleyways and hid out in sewers and even stole a cat bowl full of water once when I couldn't find anything else to drink. Even though I was living homeless at twelve years old, I didn't mind. The rumbling of my stomach the sand papery feel of my tongue kept my mind off the fact that I might never see Leo Valdez again. That I might never hear him tell another joke or see him smile in that way that told me everything would be alright. Even when the thought crossed my mind, I never cried again while I was on the streets. I'd learned that tearing up didn't help my situation, so I just… didn't do it. It was that easy for me. After all, living on the streets was hardly comparable to the time my mother had died. Like I said before, things don't go my way in life, so I wasn't surprised when I was caught in a Chicago city alleyway by a rapist (or murderer, it was sort of hard to tell while screaming my lungs out).

I honestly thought I was going to die.

To be fair, I definitely fought for my life. I'm not one to just give up and let someone kill me, if that's what you're thinking. Unfortunately I'm really not at all strong or muscled like some of the people I had met, and I couldn't hold my own as well as I wanted to.

Lucky for me that a god showed up to save me, right?

"Hey, hey, _hey! _Might want to get your filthy paws of my daughter, pal."

Alright, so I must admit that my mouth fell open when he said that.

For one thing, this guy – who was apparently my knight in shining armor, since the rapist/axe murderer dude booked it immediately – didn't look much older than I was. Maybe like fifteen or sixteen and I was enough of a pre-teen at that point to know when a guy was attractive. He was _hot. _I'm talking blond hair, blue eyes, tall and muscular kind of hot.

Figures he'd claim to be my _dad _of all things.

He finally seemed to notice how confused I was. He gave me a big grin and held two thumbs up.

"Gotcha covered, kid."

I would've liked to tell you that I responded with something uncommonly witty and intelligent.

"Uh…"

Yeah, not the case. Really too bad, that.

His grin only widened at the noise that could hardly be called a response that passed through his lips. "Shocked speechless, huh? I guess it's understandable. You _are _in the presence of the god of the sun, after all."

"The god of… the son?" I repeated, finally composed enough to raise an eyebrow. "What…?"

"…and poetry and healing and awesomeness," he continued, ticking them off on his fingers. "Oh! And cool sunglasses."

I was definitely gaping again. He kept listing off stupid stuff like hair gel and rock hard abs, finally ending with a haiku that _almost _made me crack an amused smile. Almost. I loved poetry, but his stuff was awful. Instead of smiling, I cringed. He noticed.

"Don't like that one? Hmm… I've got a whole lot of others that I could –"

"No, no!" I interrupted hurriedly. "Don't do that. The one you just said was… was so wonderful that I think it would literally kill me to listen to another one. Kill me with the power of your awesome self, of course."

He was obviously into himself, so I wasn't too surprised when my not-so-subtle ego stroking worked like a charm. He slung his right arm over my shoulder before I could duck away. I wondered for a minute if he was drunk or something. Why would he be interested in saving a scrawny girl like me? I mean, I didn't believe him when he said he was my father. That just sounded incredibly dumb. If he really was my father, then why the heck would he show up _now? _ I would've thought he was just a homeless bloke, but his designer clothing kind of killed that suspicion. Still, just because I was wrong about him being homeless didn't mean he was related to me! I was rather hoping he _wasn't, _actually. Being attracted to someone who was in any way my family would just be flat out gross.

"Well then! It's getting late, kid. Gotta split. Keep your chin up. Things'll get better soon. Oh, and in about four years, you're going to meet someone named Tolk. She'll take you where you belong, 'kay? See ya!"

With that, he was gone. Literally. As in, poofed-in-the-blink-of-an-eye kind of gone. I looked around, but he was nowhere in sight. Even though I was a little freaked out (I figured I must be going crazy like my mother), I still grabbed my back pack and started walking again. I made sure to steer clear of alleyways and decided to sleep under bridges or in the subway instead.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

I was caught a day later by a policemen when he saw me walking across the street at one in the morning. When he asked me where I lived, I didn't have an answer for him, so he immediately 'escorted' me to the police station. After hours of interrogation and no results, he sent me to the local children's home to spend the night while the details were worked out with the social workers. Finally, the next morning, I was told to bring whatever belongings I had and board a bus that would take me to St. Luffie's Academy. No, I'm not joking, that was the name out front. Or maybe it was St. Lovie's Academy… I'm not for usre, since the words were murder on my dyslexic eyes. In any case, the school wasn't at all what the name portrayed it to be.

The halls and classrooms and dorms were dirty, the kids were vulgar, and I definitely had to prove myself numerous times before anyone would even think of respecting me and my personal space. Granted, I did become a bit tougher while living there, but it was pretty much the pit in all other aspects. I got nothing higher than a D on all my assignments and I was always getting a bad rep from the teachers. Most of them hated my guts majorly. The fourth year I was there, however, I did meet someone that changed everything. I had her as a friend, and somehow, that was enough.

The only thing that bothered me was that the kid who had saved me in the alleyway when I was twelve had had his little prophesy come true. Her name… was Tolk. She didn't have a last name (or at least not one she would tell me) and she was also incredibly into herself. Just as much as he had been, actually. Now, don't get me wrong. Just because she was interested in looking good in front of everyone (designer makeup and all) that didn't mean she wasn't able to kick your backside into next week. In fact, she did just that to every guy that tried to hit on me or ask me out (the latter of which was kind of pointless, since there was no way any of us could get out of Luffie's without breaking the law in some way. Not that I don't doubt everyone in the school had done so at least once, but still). Tolk always seemed to have a different hair dye color for every day of the week. Monday was yellow, Tuesday was green, Wednesday was purple, and etcetera. She was pale and tall – while I was still relatively short for my sixteen years – and she loved makeup and nice clothes and calling everyone 'darling' and 'honey.' For some reason, I got the feeling that her real name wasn't Tolk and that she wasn't who she said she was (the girl was always going on about being some famous fashion designer's daughter or some such). Whenever I called out to her, it took her a minute to respond, like she was getting used to the name I was referring to her by. When I mentioned one of the numerous back stories she had supplied me with, she never remembered them fully.

Not only was this incredibly annoying, it was also a big headache for me. She was a good friend (well, considering she was the only one I had) and she always helped me out with homework when I couldn't read the text, but she'd still piss me off when she went on about how I should style my hair and put on some eyeliner and lipstick for once in my life. Nobody in this place cared how they looked! That is, everyone except _her. _She'd stare at us all like were the biggest fashion disasters since the cave men had died off.

Anyways, I'm going to go ahead and skip all of the _months _she berated me about my fashion choices and fast forward to the last day I ever spent at the Academy. She and I were sitting alone together in the middle of the hallway on the bench. She had this really serious look in her eyes – which, in case you were wondering, is an uncharacteristic expression for Tolk to display – as if she were about to tell me something _big. _I idly wondered why everything seemed so quiet, why there weren't any crowds in the halls like usual, but since she didn't seem to notice I didn't let it bother me either.

"Aeron, there's something I've got to tell you," she said quickly, wringing her hands in her lap and blinking her just-the-right-amount-of-mascara eyelashes. "It's really important."

"What? Did you forget to turn in your homework?" I asked, quirking a brow.

She scowled. "No! That isn't it at all."

"Then what is it?" I prompted, urging her to continue. Honestly, I had better things to do than sit around here. "You might want to hurry. We have class in like, ten minutes."

She took a deep breath before continuing. "I talked to my mom last night and… and she says it's time for me to take you to Camp Half Blood. It's time for the…" Tolk gulped. "The… _ceremony._"

Okay, this was getting weird. I raised both eyebrows now in confusion. "Camp Half Blood? Ceremony? What are you talking about? There's no way we can go to a camp! It's the middle of the school year for crying out loud!"

She groaned, as if expecting my response, and turned toward me with an even deeper scowl than before. "We have to _go, _darling!"

"Don't call me darling," I muttered. "And anyway, no. I'm not going anywhere. They'll send me to military school if I get caught trying to run away again, you know that."

"I was afraid you would say that."

This was seriously starting to freak me out just a little. Her tone was so… so _final. _It was like she had just made a decision that she didn't want to make in the first place. I decided my best bet was to make a run for it and wait for her to come to her senses, but she caught my wrist with her hand and held it in a vise grip. With her other, she held up a sticker.

Yeah, you heard me, _a sticker. _It had a picture of a little cupid on it – which threw me off just long enough for her to slap it on the skin of my shoulder. All of a sudden I began to feel incredibly sleepy, and Tolk managed a small sad smirk. Her eyes told me how sorry she was for this, how much she regretted tricking me into thinking she'd _just _arrived here to be my friend, before I blacked out completely.

"Sweet dreams, Aeron."


	3. It's Just Leo

Look for the girl with the broken smile_  
__…ask her if she wants to stay awhile…_

* * *

I'm sorry to say, I forgot Aeron Fenwick.

Now, she didn't slip my mind completely, but you don't exactly have much time to think about old friends when you're getting almost-killed every day of the week by metal dragons and training crazed demi-gods, not to mention that saving the world does actually take a lot of work. I know, I know! You're thinking, 'she was your best friend, doofus! How could you forget the girl who spent six years of your life sleeping right next to you and breathing the same air?' Granted, I'm an idiot in that respect. I really should've called or something after arriving at reform school. In my defense, they treated us all like prisoners. We got like, one phone call a week, and I was usually too busy playing pranks on the teachers and laughing at Jason and Piper's mist-induced-relationship to worry about talking on a telephone.

When I did finally remember her, after the whole 'teaming up with the Roman Camp' deal, I was pretty hard pressed for newfangled machines and whatever-else that could help us with the battles and quests soon ensuing. Plus, we weren't allowed cell phones at Camp and I doubt they had them at the Roman one either. And anyway, after all these years there wasn't any guarantee she was still sitting around at our last foster home waiting for me to come back to her.

When I turned eighteen, I had a dream about her.

I promise it wasn't as creepy as it sounds.

No, really.

Honest to Hades, I was just remembering when Aeron and I had booked it the first time. I hadn't known her as much then, hadn't really cared to bring her along with me – though I knew I didn't have much of a choice. She was going to rat me out if I didn't! I was only seven years old, so in all my little boy glory I totally messed up a conversation with her. She'd been talking about how she wished she could've grabbed one of her dolls and mentioned something about her mother playing some girly game with her… when she had been alive, that is.

"_Isn't she still alive?" _I had asked, being stupid in that moment. She gave me this look that obviously meant, '_are you an idiot? Would I be here if she was?' _and clammed up immediately afterwards. The scene had shifted in my dream to the point when I had left at thirteen. Her tears were so vivid, her pleas so intense that I woke up afterwards in a cold sweat. I couldn't figure out if the dream had come from drinking too much alcohol the night before (I was finally old enough, so Percy and Jason and Piper had practically dragged me to the bar. Annabeth and Rachel had picked us up later. From what I can remember, we passed out pretty quickly in the car) or just some repressed memory climbing to the surface. Honestly, I'm surprised Chiron and Mr. D even let us out for my birthday. They've been pretty hyped about security lately (or, at least, Chiron was. Not so sure about the fatty cherub that is Mr. D –don't tell him I said that, by the way!). I kind of wished they hadn't let us leave. For one thing, I woke up with a pounding headache _and _I was feeling guilty after being reminded of Aeron by that stupid dream. Or maybe it was a nightmare. Sorta hard to tell, I suppose.

My younger half-sister, Diana Fey, took that moment to wake me up fully by throwing a glass of cold water in my face. She's only six years old and a newbie on top of everything else, so it's not like I could kick her for it. Trust me, she plays the 'little kid' pouty face on you every time. Instead I settled for spluttering unintelligently for a while and glaring daggers in her direction.

"Mornin'!" She said cheerfully, settling the now empty glass beside my bed. She really didn't look all that much like a Hephaestus kid, with her bright green eyes and strawberry red hair, and she seemed to be more interested in drawing and painting than tinkering and taking things apart. Still, she's _majorly _cute, so it isn't as if we can mention it without getting totally beaten with the 'you-kicked-my-kitten' look.

I groaned in answer and ran a hand through my curly brown hair. She just smirked.

"Let's go! We're supposed to be at the mess hall, dummy. You're lucky I stayed to wake you up!" Diana grinned, blatantly displaying that her two front teeth were missing. I was soon smiling mischievously back at her. No way was I able to stay mad at utter adorableness.

"Don't talk to your Cabin Counselor with such rudeness," I said, jokingly taking on an overly pompous accent. I had become the counselor for the Hephaestus Cabin about a year or so back, when Jake Mason had felt it was time for him to retire. Apparently he thought I deserved the position or something, but I hadn't actually wanted it all that much. I'm not good at being the leader in _anything, _let alone planning things for my Cabin and etcetera. It's way too much work for me, thank you very much.

I ran to brush my teeth and throw on one of my countless oil stained orange 'Camp Half Blood' shirts before grabbing Diana's hand and tugging her out the door. I wasn't going to be late to get my breakfast just because I had a hangover (and yes, I definitely had one. My head still hurt like Hades). She squealed and laughed happily behind me as I dragged her along. Maybe she was just in a good mood because we weren't getting attacked by monsters or anything creepy like that. I wouldn't have been surprised if that were the case, since Diana's life has been pretty hard. Not that the rest of us haven't had a life that's just as hard, but still… poor kid lost her ungodly parent in a plane accident when she was three. Apparently she had been living in an orphanage before a satyr picked her up and brought her to Camp Half Blood. Good thing too, since I doubt she would've survived very long. Diana definitely isn't as strong as the rest of us Hephaestus kids. In fact, she's downright frail compared to me or Jake or even some of the other girls.

"Soooo," she drawled right before we entered the 'Food Hall' as I liked to call it. "You know Piper's gonna ask you again…"

"Yeah, yeah," I said, sighing. "She asks every time."

"Whatcha gonna answer?"

"Definitely a no, that's for sure."

She was silent for a long moment before I finally heard her voice again. "If you just told her that you _finally _got a –"

"Leo!"

_Too late, _I thought, mentally face palming myself as Piper sauntered over. She was grinning widely (a bad sign, in case you didn't know). "H_eeee_y, Leo!" she said, smirking in that all too familiar way that I knew meant 'I-am-about-to-ask-you-something-really-awkward.' "You got pretty wasted last night."

Huh? Okay, so maybe she was easing into it. I smiled easily – though also a bit nervously, I must admit, and nodded. "Yeah… heh… _right. _Hey, Pipes! I've got this _awesome _joke that I think you'd really like to hear –"

"Not now."

Oops. Now she was getting serious. _Better run. _Before I could dash off (in a perfectly manly way, of course), she sidestepped so that there wasn't any way to go but around her. She'd most likely break my arm if I tried that, so I figured staying put was my best bet.

"I think you know why I'm here…"

_Gulp. _

"Uh… I've got a pretty good idea…" I mumbled, shifting from foot to foot. I tried not to notice Diana's amused expression or Piper's raised eyebrow.

Finally, Piper asked the dreaded question. "Got a girlfriend yet?"

I think I might've replied a little too quickly when I said, "No!" loud enough to have everyone in the hall turn towards us. Much to my chagrin, she began to smirk once more.

"Really? Sure there isn't someone on your mind…?"

Now, I know what you must be thinking. Just to clarify here, Piper is _not _interested in me. She's like my older sister. Actually, she's just worried that I'll end up an old maid (or… man… I guess) one of these days if I don't snag myself a girl. Don't get me wrong, I've dated plenty of times. It isn't as if the female population of Camp Half Blood hates me or something, because they _don't _(at least, most of them don't)_…_ but I always leave them in the dust the next day or I just flat out deny their advances.

I obviously took too long to answer, because Piper was seriously grinning at me now. Like, a crazy grin. It was a bit creepy, to be honest.

"Hmm… want to _tell me about it?_"

"Will you murder me if I don't?" I asked, flashing a grin of my own just for revenge.

"You know it."

If that wasn't a threat, I don't know what is. Still, there was no way I was about to go blurt out that the only girl on my mind at that moment was Aeron Fenwick, whom Piper, Jason, Percy, Annabeth, Rachel, Diana and etcetera, knew absolutely nothing about. I wondered how she looked now or if she was even alive.

When I remained silent, Piper's grin transformed into a scowl. Poor girl must be worried sick that I'd die without ever getting married (I'm pretty sure she was hoping I'd ask her to be a witness whenever I had my wedding. But if she kept this up, she could forget even being invited). Before she could reprimand me on striving to grow up alone – which, I wasn't striving for, but I didn't ask for my lot in life, people – I pushed past her and went to sit at the Hephaestus table where (I hoped) she wouldn't bother me. Diana followed, shooting apologetic glances at Piper, who looked like she was pretty close to flipping a table.

"You shouldn't have done that…" Diana mumbled, sliding in next to me.

"How else was I supposed to escape?" I asked, blinking incredulously. Why was a six year old getting on my back? I was at least two or three times older than her!

"You should get some of that… umm… sleepy dust stuff from Connor n' Travis Stoll. Then, whenever she came by…"

"…I could throw it at her? Yeah, might work, but she'd just kill me after she woke up. Not exactly a win-win situation," I finished.

I was about to grab my plate and go push some of my food into the fireplace, but Chiron's voice stopped me in my tracks. "Leo Valdez," I heard him say loudly.

_Uh-Oh. Not good. _

I could hear people whispering as the hall grew almost silent. Obviously they thought I had gotten myself into trouble yet again. The Hephaestus table glared at me reproachfully. I couldn't blame them. This wasn't the first time I'd been called out for pulling a stupid prank or just being an idiot in general.

"Yes, Mister Hor – I mean, Chiron?" I said, mentally slapping myself for slipping. I was about to say 'Mister Horse-Dude', but that probably wouldn't have gone over well. I think he caught it, which was probably why he wasn't smiling when I walked hesitantly over to where he sat in his wheelchair.

Just in case you don't know, Chiron isn't actually lame. He can walk fine… when he's half horse, that is. The guy is a Centaur, and the wheelchair thing is an act that he puts on occasionally. That didn't exactly make me feel any better, but I figured you ought to know so you won't be surprised when he turns back into a bit of an animal. No, that wasn't a pun.

"Mr. Valdez," he replied calmly and quietly so that the rest of the hall couldn't hear. "I have something very important to tell you."

Double uh-oh. Usually when something was important, that either meant I was in _big _trouble or there was a fifty-fifty chance that I'd die a horrible death after receiving the info. Not so good either way.

"However," he continued, tipping his head forward a bit. "We will not be discussing it here. I trust you won't mind missing breakfast?"

_Actually I _do _mind, _I wanted to say, but decided to reply with a nod instead. It was usually safer to keep my mouth shut when these sorts of things happened.

* * *

"Pay attention, Leonardo Voldick."

I snapped my head up at Mr. D's bored-sounding warning. I had previously been staring down at my hands, probably looking for all the world like an uninterested teenager. But I was paying attention! Well, somewhat… anyway, I was really trying not to reach for the tidbits of metal in my pockets – which is what I usually did when I was nervous, like _right now _for instance.

"Actually, it's Leo Valdez. Not… Leonardo Voldick…" At least he was somewhat close. Usually Mr. D got everyone's name totally wrong. It surprised me that he even remembered my initials.

"Mr. Valdez," Chiron said, nabbing my attention again. "Just in case you did not catch the last half hour of my explanation, I will say it in short sentences that you might understand." When I didn't answer, he continued after clearing his throat. "To make a long story short, you were betrothed at birth to a young woman close to your age who has not yet been claimed, but whom is undoubtedly from the Apollo Cabin."

I blinked at him, and he sighed. "Did you, perhaps, get all that?"

"So, basically," I said slowly. "This is one of Piper's pranks, right? Is she bribing you with something? Because this isn't all that funny, and my head is still aching pretty badly from my 'night on the town' yesterday. Ha, ha, wahoo. Can I go now? Oh, and maybe you can snap your fingers and order me some aspirin before I leave…?"

Mr. D and Chiron stared at me as if I'd just directly insulted them. Finally, Chiron took a deep breath in through his nose and let it out before responding. "This is not a joke, Leo Valdez."

The fact that he had said my whole name instead of calling me 'Mister' definitely hit home the seriousness of this whole thing. My eyes widened and I began waving my hands frantically in front of my chest. "No, no! I'm still young! I can't get _married _yet!"

"Ah, but you _see, _Leonardo," Mr. D drawled. "You don't have a choice."

I ignored the fact that he had called me 'Leonardo' again and turned toward Chiron with a look of pure desperation on my face. "W-What is this? I'm… I'm just Leo! I mean, sure, I can walk through fire and everything, but that doesn't mean I'm – "

" – special?" Chiron finished. "Oh, but you _are, _Mr. Valdez,especially in these dark times."

_Dark times? I thought I was past those! _

"What are you talking about?" I squeaked, my voice a bit higher than normal due to the panic that was beginning to set in. "Listen, dude –"

"Chiron," he corrected.

"Mr. Chiron dude," I repeated. He was obviously suppressing the urge to roll his eyes, but I continued nonplussed. "I'm not good with girls! I always make a fool of myself around them and I've never dated one for more than a week and – and –"

" – and you'll be marrying one in," Mr. D looked up at the clock on the wall. "A month."

My eye twitched. _A month? _Were the gods trying to kill me or something?

"Please pay close attention. What I am about to tell you is highly confidential," Chiron said. "The reason you were paired with this girl in the first place is because the gods have always been prone to quarrels and fighting. Percy Jackson has already proposed to Annabeth Chase, thus binding her to the son of the sea god and creating a truce between Poseidon and Athena. Piper and Jason, your friends, I assume, will be married as well in due time if things go according to plan. If this happens, Aphrodite and Zeus will have a reason not to try and kill each other for a while. So on, so forth, if you get the picture. The gods do this about every century. Apparently it saves them the trouble of getting overly irritated at each other. No need to get worked up about it."

"Right," Mr. D cut in. "Think of it like aiding your pathetic excuse for a human species."

Chiron gave him a look of exasperation, but I was too busy freaking out to care that Dionysus had just insulted me and everyone else in the world. After a few minutes of hyperventilating, I got up the nerve to ask the question that had been bothering me the entire time.

"Who's the girl…? The one I'm supposed to… _you know_…" Marry? Deflower? I'm not sure what I would have finished with if I had the guts. I was going to say 'who's the _lucky _girl' but I seriously doubted that anyone marrying me was really all that lucky. Besides, my sorry attempt at humor probably wouldn't have been appreciated.

"Ah, that would be –"

" – Aeron Fenwick. I believe you knew her once?" Mr. D interrupted.

That was it. I almost passed out, but before my face could become flattened by the floor, Chiron caught me and pushed me back up onto my chair.

Great, I was going to marry a girl I hadn't seen in six years.

Piper would definitely be thrilled.

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A/N: Thanks for the reviews! You guys are great! This chapter is in Leo's POV and the next one will be as well. =)


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